Puzzle Master
by authorgirl7
Summary: Mick and Beth are following a series of clues left by a possible murderer. The murderer may be human or vampire but whoever it is they are incredibly smart and can create puzzles that Mick may not even be able to solve. Please read and reveiw!
1. Chapter 1

Puzzle master

**_Chapter 1 The first puzzle_**

**Unknown POV**

Blood…lots of blood…deep red soaking the white carpet. It smelled soooo good. Sweet, wonderful, delicious.

**Micks POV**

I got the call early in the morning. A teenage girl killed in a hotel room late last night. Work of a vampire? Maybe. I'd have to check out the scene.

I arrived at the hotel around 8. A few police officers were talking by the front doors. They didn't seem to even notice me. Talk about lack of security.

The lobby was like any other 5 star hotel. Gold paint, antique furniture, crystal chandelier and the front desk. No one was there so he rang the bell. A jumpy looking girl came running, more like tripping, out of the hallway connected to the lobby.

"I am so sorry." She said, smoothing her hair. "You weren't waiting long were you?" she straightened her glasses.

"Not at all." I smiled, "Can you tell me what room that girl was killed in? I am a private detective, her parents hired me. And I will need a master key just in case I have to search the surrounding rooms."

"Oh," she looked a little surprised, "Your looking into Trisha's death?"

"You knew her?" I asked.

"Well," she looked uneasy, "I've worked here for about a year now. Trish' came about every month for business. So I knew her. She wound bring me lunch sometimes. The food here isn't that great. And sometimes if I worked that late shift she would come down and keep me company. I can't believe she's really gone."

"Do you know where she works?" the girl shook her head.

"Okay," I sighed. Nothing was ever easy. I took the key card from her.

"Oh," her face darkened. "She was in room 307 but moved yesterday afternoon to room 243. She looked upset about something when she came down to ask me for the room change."

"Thanks." I said and I headed for the elevator.

"Wait!" she called. "Her body wasn't found in _her_ room."

She glanced around the lobby. "It was found in room 751. But no one had checked in for that room. The keys were here the whole time."

I got off the elevator on the 7th floor. I'd check the crime scene first. Room 751 was near the end of the hall. The door was roped off but there were no police anywhere from what I could see. The door was slightly opened. A blond girl was bent over staring at something on the desk.

"Figures you'd be here." I smirked as the girl jumped. She spun around.

"Mick," she looked sort of relieved. "You're such a jerk."

"Good to see you too, Beth."

She turned back to the desk.

"Have you found anything?" I asked.

She shook her head. "Not really. I just find it interesting that there are no officers or detectives up here…besides you of course."

"I was thinking the same thing."

"Could a vampire have done this?" she asked turning to me.

"I smell a vampire but it's so faint that it could have been that a vampire had just stayed here once."

"Well, whoever did this," she gestured toward the bed. "They made a huge mess."

There was a massive red stain in the carpet the size of a body. A vampire wouldn't have wasted the blood. Nothing in the room looked broken or out of place. I looked under the beds, in the closet, and in the bathroom. I even used the master key to get into the rooms next to 751. They all looked identical (minus the blood). I went back to the room with Beth.

"There are to many unanswered questions." I muttered. "To many puzzles."

"Wait." Beth looked from me to the desk and back again. "Puzzles. Mick you're a genius." She began to shuffle through the piles of paper.

"What are you looking for?" I asked a little confused.

"This." She pulled a purple folder from the stack.


	2. Chapter 2

**Review Please I need to know if I should keep writing this!!!**

Chapter 2

**Micks POV**

"What is it?" I asked now even more confused than before.

Beth sighed and opened the folder. Inside was a scrambled mess of papers. Puzzles to be more accurate.

"This girl was weird. I mean, look at all of these. Sudoku, mazes, crosswords… my gosh. She clearly had way too much time on her hands." Beth rambled on. I shifted through the pile of paper then stopped.

"Beth," I should have realized this before. " This wasn't the girls room."

"What's your point?" She gave me a quizzical look.

"How did her stuff get here?" I nodded toward the folder that was still in her hands. She dropped it as if it has burned her.

"You see it too don't you?" the corner of my mouth twitched as the realization hit the blond girl.

"How did it get here? Did she take it? If she did, why did she bring it here?" Her voice faded out.

We were silent for a moment. Both of us staring at the papers on the desk.

"It makes no sense." Beth muttered. I nodded in agreement.

There were five questions I needed to find the answers to.

1: Why did the girl change rooms in the first place?

2: Why was the girl murdered in _this_ room?

3: Who brought the papers up here? Why?

4: Who was the murderer?

5: Why do I always end up running into Beth on a murder case?!?

I knew that I would never find out the answer to the last one but I just needed to ask it anyway.

I turned and walked from the room. Beth close on my heals. I stepped into the elevator again pushing the lobby button with a little more force than necessary. It lit up and the doors slid closed slowly.

"Um…where are we…" I held up my hand to silence her.

Thk..thk..thkthk..thk..thk..thkthk..thk..thk..thkthk..

"Do you here that?" I whispered.

"What…" There was a loud grinding noise from above us. "Okay. I hear it now." Beth said nervously she clutched the sleeve of my jacket.

I jammed the button for the fifth floor. The doors opened almost instantly. As soon as we were through the doors the lights flickered out in the elevator.

"Beth," my eyes were still fixed on the elevator. "knock on one of the doors and have them call the front desk. Tell them their elevator is no longer in operation."

"Sure." She said bitting her lip. She walked off toward the nearest door.

"I d-d-don't believe it!" the jumpy front desk girl was almost in hysterics. "Someone could have been k-k-killed. That would have made t-t-t-two. We j-j-j-just had it checked two d-d-d-days ago. No one was hurt r-r-right?"

I assured her once again that we were both fine. After the incident in the elevator the hotel had hired a maintenance crew to look at it. Apparently all the cables that held the elevator had been cut in different places. If we had been in there much longer the whole thing would have broken and we'd be dead.

"G-g-good. Really good. Aww man." She put her face in her hands. We were at the front desk waiting for the camera recordings of inside elevator, seventh floor hallway showing room 751, and the ones showing room 307 and 243.

A bellboy walked up carrying a few CDs. "Are these for you, sir?

"Probably." I took the labeled CDs from him.

"Those are copies. Not the originals. If they don't work I can make you another copy of them…" He stopped mumbling when he caught my gaze. What was it with people rambling about unimportant things today? The bellboys face reddened and he left.

I handed the disks to Beth. "Stay here with her," I gestured to the girl, whose name I now knew was Jenny. "watch the videos and make a list of all the people going into the rooms. Make another list of those who went into the elevator after I left on the seventh floor. I am going to check the two other rooms and then I have to go ask an old _friend_ a question."

Beth nodded and she and Jenny went behind the desk. Beth turned and mouthed 'you better not ditch me' then disappeared.

I took the stairs up to the second floor. Door 243 was open too. I wondered if Beth had come here first. But she hadn't said anything. Quietly, I opened the door and slid into the room. Nothing was out of place. Nothing that would give me a clue to this absurd murder. Puzzle. This whole thing was a puzzle. What was it with the puzzles? I decided to take another look at room 751. First I had to check out the girl's room.

Trisha Blake was (there is no other way to put it) a neat freak. Everything was perfectly in order. All her clothes in the closet or folded nicely in the dresser. Wallet and keycard stacked on the table by the door along with rent-a-car keys. I looked at her drivers license. She lives in Georgia, was 19 and had a job that required her to travel? What 19 year old had a job that required them to go out of state. Unless it wasn't a job.

I left with more questions than answers. I did know that the papers on the desk could not have been put there by Trisha. They might have been Trisha's but she was too neat to have them thrown and spread out on the desk like they were. Beth might have done it but I doubted it. She wouldn't disturb a crime scene.

I climbed the stairs to the seventh floor. Why was this hotel so empty? I was sure that people would have left because of the death but there had to be some brave souls in this place. It was like a ghost town.

The door was still open from when we left. I needed to find that paper I had seen on the desk. The one with Josef's and Trisha's names on it. I needed to find out the connection between the two of them.

I stopped dead in my tracks. Everything the papers and even the blood was gone completely. And I wasn't in the wrong room. Trust me, I checked.

**Review PLEASE!!!**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

**Sorry this one was so short and sorry it was late. With Exams and finishing up tests… ugh. But here it is…**

My head was still spinning when found Josef. He was standing on the far side of the room watching the crowded streets below.

"And to what do I owe this visit? You aren't here just to say hello, I take it." He turned and smirked at me.

"What do you know about Trisha Blake?" I asked as Josef sat down on the designer sofa.

He thought for a moment then said slowly "I'm not sure I know who you are asking about?"

I sighed inwardly. "I found a paper in the hotel that the girl, Trisha Blake, was murdered in."

He studied me for a moment "And you think this has something to do with me?"

I shrugged, "The paper had your name on it."

"Can I see the paper?" Damn, the one question I was hoping he wouldn't ask.

" I don't have it." What else could I say?

He gave me a questioning look and I filled him in on all the details. After I finished he stood and walked over to the mini-bar area and pulled out two glasses and a bottle of thick red liquid. I smelled it instantly. Blood.

"So, someone tries to kill you and Beth and when you walk back to the room remembering the paper with my name on it, everything, including the blood, is gone. This my be your hardest case yet." He handed me the glass and took a sip of his own.

Beth was waiting for me at the hotel. I told her everything about the trip to Josef's she looked just as lost and confused as I felt.

"Did you find anything on the tapes?" I sighed. I was running out of options. What would I do if the path ran cold? I couldn't just give up?

"Not much just the cleaning ladies and some girl got in the elevator before us but she was way too young to be able to sabotage the elevator." Beth said reading off of a post-it-note.

"What floor did she get off at?"

Beth laughed humorlessly. "Give you one guess?"

"The seventh floor." Beth nodded gravely.

"Name?" Beth bit her lip.

"Beth?" I asked. She twisted a strand of her hair between her fingers.

"Sorry Mick," She said. "She never checked in and no one even saw her come in or leave."

This was getting way too complicated.

"I did get a picture though." she pulled the folded piece of paper out of the pocket of her jeans.

The girl in the picture was about 17 from the looks of her. But I knew better than anyone that looks can be deceiving. Her hair was dark. Black or dark brown, pulled back in a long braid that ran the length of her spine. Normal height, thin, blue jeans and a black jacket. What stood out to me the most where her eyes. Lightning silver. They were the eyes that if you looked deep into them you'd get an involuntary shiver down you spine.

Beth's stomach rumbled. She blushed furiously. My lips twitched.

"Let's get lunch." I said. Beth raised her eyebrows.

I rolled my eyes to the ceiling. "Lunch for _you_ I mean."

"Alright, _you_ suggested it so _you_ pay." She smiled and headed toward the doors, oblivious to my glare.

**Review please.**


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